Construction of wilderness in the formation of Glacier National Park, Montana

Urion, Celeste

Relative lack of human agency is a component of the definition of a place as wilderness. This study is an exploration of the changing concept of wilderness as it was used by those who developed, managed or promoted Glacier National Park, Montana manifestly created to "preserve" the area as "wilderness" during the first four decades of this century. The study is based on the historiographical premise that the environment has agency in human action and in the formation of ideas, and that historical analysis of those ideas informs our understanding of past action on the environment. An example of this dynamic is the way in which a Turnerian conception that interaction with the wilderness "frontier" had formed the American character figured in the creation and early management of the Park. A summary description of human activity in the Park area through the 1930s is presented, and six popular traveler's reports, published between 1917 and 1936, exemplify changing conceptions of the park as wilderness.

Construction of wilderness in the formation of Glacier National Park, Montana

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